The Son of Man must be lifted up
The Sign of the Brazen Serpent Wherefore the Lord sent among the people fiery serpents, which bit them and killed many of them. Upon which...
And the Virgin’s Name Was Mary
The Most Holy Name of Mary In 1683 Pope Innocent XI extended the existing Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary to the universal...
I went astray and still I remembered Thee
This is a most unusual depiction of Saint Augustine washing the feet of Christ. A friar named Strozzi painted it in 1629. Augustine, wearing an...
Saint Bartholomew, the Simple Apostle
A Learned Rabbi Today is the feast of Saint Bartholomew, the apostle whose other name is Nathanael. A native of Cana in Galilee and a...
Surprised by the Gospel . . . again
Saint Bartholomew’s Gospel I find it curious that, for the feast of Saint Bartholomew, the Roman Missal does not give the passage from Saint John’s...
The Knowledge of the Glory of God
2 Corinthians 4:7-15 Psalm 125: 1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6 Matthew 20:20-28 Treasure in Earthen Vessels “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that...
Wasting the Precious Ointment
Yesterday morning (2 June 2012), during the very lengthy and rich Liturgy for Ember Saturday in Whitsun (Pentecost) Week, I preached to a group of...
Sufficit tibi gratia mea
Sexagesima Sunday 12 February 2012 The Introit Today’s Mass opens with a great cry asking God to wake up. The prayer is one of a...
Saint Paul, the First Hermit
Planted in the House of the Lord Today, in our Benedictine calendar, we commemorate Saint Paul the First Hermit (+343). The Introit of the Mass,...
The Eucharistic Humility of God
The 16th Sunday After Pentecost The Most Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Divine Humility. Those who partake of It worthily enter into the...
The Call of Matthew According to Caravaggio
Caravaggio’s “Call of Matthew” is a meditatio on the lectio of today’s Gospel. It gives rise to oratio and leads to contemplatio. I am amazed...
A Vocation’s Unexpected Turns
Birth, Passion, Death Each year the Church gives us two feastdays of Saint John the Baptist: the first on June 24th to mark his nativity,...
O Holy Father John Chrysostom, you are a brilliant torch flooding the universe with light!
Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church 1 Corinthians 7:35-31 Psalm 44:10-11, 13b-14, 15-16 (r. 10a) Luke 6:20-26 A Preacher Unlike Any Other...
Saint Helena, Empress
The feast of Saint Helena is August 18th. When I lived at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome, it was celebrated with all due solemnity....
God: always more ready to hear than we to pray
La guarigione del sordomuto, Cristoforo de Predis, Milano, 1440-1486 11th Sunday After Pentecost Today’s Introit, well served by its sturdy 5th mode melody, is a...
I Will Have Mercy Upon Whom I Have Mercy
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska One might say that Saint Maria Faustina belongs to the spiritual family of the Little Thérèse whom we remembered last Sunday,...
Approach With the Fear of God and with Faith
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost [Thirteenth Sunday Per Annum B] Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 Mark 5:21-43 A Story of Two Healings Two...
Nolite obdurare corda vestra
This painting of Jesus preaching in the synagogue at Capernaum is the work of the Polish-Jewish artist Maurycy Gottlieb (1856-1879). Note that he depicts Our...
A Little Bit of All the Virtues
Friday of the First Week of the Year I Hebrews 4:1-5, 11 Psalm 77: 3 & 4bc, 6c-7, 8 Mark 2:1-12 Toil and Rest There...
A Drop of Water in the Wine
Twenty-Ninth Saturday II Mass de Beata in Sabbato Ephesians 4:7-16 Psalm 121: 1-2, 3-4ab, 4cd-5 Luke 13:1-9 In the Light of the Ascension Today’s Epistle...